Tri-County Historical Itinerary J. W. WHICKCAR,Attica, Acting as Guide

STOP NO. 1 Near the Home of Mr. Orrie Milligan on the Independence Road In the act of the legislature creating Fountain County in the session of 1825 and 1826, the following proceeding rela- tive to what afterwards became Warren County was made: Section 7. All that part of the County of Wabash lying north and west of the said County of Fountain, shall be and here- after is attached to the said County of Fountain for the pur- pose of civil and criminal jurisdiction. Act approved De- cember 30, 1825. Warren County remained under the juris- diction of Fountain County until the session of the legislature in 1826 and 1827, at which session Warren County was cre- ated. Daniel Sigler, of Putnam County; James Strange, of Parke County ; Thomas Lampson, of Montgomery County ; James Paige, of Tippecanoe County, and Robert Wilson, of Vigo County, were appointed commissioners for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice of the new County of Warren. All of the above named commissioners, with the ex- ception of Mr. Wilson, convened at the home of Enoch Farmer on the first Monday in June, 1827. Enoch Farmer’s cabin where the commissioners met was one of the first to be constructed in Warren County as a permanent home for an actual settler and stood within twenty feet of where we are now standing. The little brick spring house here at the north of the road covers the spring where Enoch Farmer got the water for his family; it was this spring of pure, clear water that caused him to build his cabin here. George Hollingsworth had taken up land from the Government adjoining the land of Enoch Farm- 37 38 Indiana Magazine of History

er, and George Hollingsworth and Enoch Farmer together had planned to lay off a town to be designated as the county seat of Warren County. The commissioners met at the home of Enoch Farmer as designated in the act and after viewing all of the various eligible sites and taking into consideration the donation of land, money, etc., finally located the county seat on the east fraction of the southwest quarter of section 31, township 22 north, range 7 west. The other sites viewed for the county seat were Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Will- iamsport. In consideration of the location of the county seat upon this tract of land, George Hollingsworth and Enoch Farmer and other citizens of Warren and Fountain counties obligated themselves to donate to the new County of Warren certain specified lands named in the papers, after the county seat had been permanently located on this land and the pay- ment to the county of certain sums of money to be paid when the cornerstone of the new courthouse was laid. And the town of Warrenton was laid out by the county agent, Luther Tillotson, early in July, 1828, just across the road east from where we are now standing. The original survey consisted of seven full blocks of eight large lots each or fifty-six lots, and a public square of almost two acres, and at the same time four additional half blocks each containing four lots, or six- teen additional lots, were platted. So the town of Warrenton consisted of a public square containing two acres of land with a street on each of the four sides and seventy-two lots. Perrin Kint, the surveyor, was assisted by Luther Tillotson, county agent, and John Whelchel, Francis Boggs, and Job Tevebaugh. Enoch Farmer assisted in the survey and boarded the men. This survey was ordered in May, 1828, by the Board of County Justices and at the same time they ordered that on the fifth day of August, 1828, a certain portion of the lots allotted to the county of Warren in the town of Warrenton should be sold at public auction, one-fourth of the purchase price to be paid in advance, and the remainder in three semi-annual install- ments. At this sale of lots free whiskey was furnished for the occasion at the expense of the county. The lots sold for from ten to twenty dollars a lot according to their location. The cash receipts of the sales were eleven dollars and ninety-four Tri-CozLnty Histmkd Itinerary 39 cents. Francis Boggs was paid seventy-five cents for the whiskey furnished by the county. The town of Warrenton only remained the county seat of Warren County until January, 1829, when an act of the legislature removed the seat of justice to Williamsport, to be effective in June following, and in compliance with this act, in June, 1829, the county seat was removed to Williarnsport. All of those who had purchased lots in Warrenton were per- mitted to transfer them for lots similarly situated in Williams- port, and most of the purchasers availed themselves of this provision. No houses were built in Warrenton, and Enoch Farmer, George Hollingsworth, and all others who had do-’ nated land, money, or other property, or service in consid- eration of having the county seat located at Warrenton, were released from all obligations.

About three hundred feet northeast of the location 01. the town of Warrenton, on the first day of June, 1791, Colonel John Hardin of with sixty mounted infantry and a troop of light horse cavalry under Captain McCoy fought a battle with the Kickapoo Indians known as the Battle of Kick- apoo. Colonel Hardin and his troops had ridden through the high gap with General . Colonel Hardin and Cap- tain McCoy took about four hundred men of an army of seven hundred and fifty which Scott divided at the foot of the Round Top Hills east of West Point. Scott and Wilkinson riding with their army three miles northwest and destroying the town of , and Colonel Hardin and Captain McCoy riding southwest from the place where the army was divid- ed, surprised the Kickapoo Indians, who were hunting along Flint Creek. The Kickapoo Indians immediately started for their permanent camp in this locality. They crossed the Wa- bash River about a mile north of here at the Kickapoo Ford. This was the best and safest ford along the Wabash from the mouth of the Tippecanoe to the mouth of the Vermilion River because the river was very wide at this point and had a solid rock bottom. In this battle Hardin knew that he killed six warriors, and he captured a number of warriors, women, and children. This battle was fought about five o’clock in the afternoon, and when Hardin rejoined Scott and Wilkinson 40 Indiana Magazine of History about one mile east of West Point at the Round Top Hills at eight o’clock in the evening, he had with him fifty-two pris- oners. William Crumpton, who was the first general merchant in the city of Attica and who is buried in the old cemetery at Attica, was with Hardin and took part in this battle, and aftewards came back to look over and help locate the grounds where the battle was fought, and finding that a town was being laid out (now Attica) on the opposite side of the river not far from the battleground of Kickapoo, Crumpton decided to locate in the new town, and take his chances with it. He was a very active man and high-class citizen. He founded the Methodist Class in Attica, in 1829, and was instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the Central Hospital for the Insane at Indianapolis, the School for the Mutes, and the School for the Blind. He was an active supporter of doctors John Evans and Isaac Fisher, of Attica, and Doctor Jones, of Covington in establishing these institutions at Indianapolis.

STOP NO. 2 Rock College The schoolhouse located on the west side of the road has always been known as Rock College. One of the first schools taught in Warren County was taught near here. It derived its name from the large boulder you see on the east side of this highway. This boulder is not as large as the one on the Harrison Trail which, before it was destroyed, was known as “Harrison’s Tea Table”. That boulder was perhaps one-third larger than this at Rock College. Since the destruction of “Harrison’s Tea Table” this is the largest boulder in Warren County, and perhaps the largest boulder in the state, brought from the north by the glacier flow.

STOP NO. 8 Kate’s Pond Originally this body of water was known as Lake Kicka- poo. It then covered more than a hundred acres of land and was much deeper than it now is. It is the furthest south of Tri-County Hist& Itinerary 41

any of the Indiana lakes, and in the native wild, is said to have been a beautiful lake, full of fish, and a great resort for the Indians. The farmers round about in draining their lands have diverted much of the original shed waters that used to run into this lake carrying it in different directions and away from the lake, thus lowering the water surface of the lake until it now covers but sixty acres of land and is quite shallow. On account of the land’s being cleared around it, and the ground broken, the soil washing in is filling the lake. It was called Lake Kickapoo until 1812, and is only about two hun- dred feet northwest to Kickapoo Creek, which helped to make it a popular and much frequented camping ground for the Indians. Because the Kickapoo Indians lived along the creek and around this lake, they both received the name of Kick- apoo. The farmhouse that you see a few rods southeast of here at the last turn in the road and off to the right is situated on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres including a portion of this lake. That house was the home of Dan Claflin who mar- ried one of the High girls, a sister to George High. Claflin and his wife were connected with the Redwood Bandits. They were married at Redwood Point in this county and they began housekeeping on the forty acres of land where the town of Pence now stands. This forty acres of land, out on the open prairie, and far removed from any other residence, became one of the most frequented places for both counterfeiters and horse thieves during the time that they flourished in Warren County. George High was finally captured at Redwood Point by Sant Grey, the founder of the Horse Thief Detective Asso- ciation, and the members of the Horse Thief Detective Associa- tion of both Warren and Fountain counties. Dan Claflin was shot through the hip, while George High made his escape. Dan Claflin and his wife and his sister-in-law, Iva High, who afterwards lived in Attica and owned an interest in this farm, and other members of the High family were convicted and sent to the penitentiary. At the expiration of their term, they bought this tract of one hundred and twenty acres of land, and both Dan Claflin and his wife died in that farm- house. 42 Indiana Magazine of Histmy

There is a legend connected with Lake Kickapoo, that in 1811 when Zachariah Cicott decided to cast his fortune with General William Henry Harrison and the Americans, he had a sweetheart among the Kickapoo, a very beautiful Indian maiden by the name of Kate, to whom he was very devoted, and she was equally fond of him. When Zachariah Cicott left Independence by special request from Harrison to serve as a scout for his army, he pledged himself and promised Kate that when the troublesome times were over and the white winged dove of peace hovered over the Wabash Valley, he would return and make her his wife. Before leaving to join Harrison he met Kate, who was the only person that knew of his departure and where he was going, and when they finally parted they both looked hopefully forward to the happy culmination of their love affair in their marriage. All the warriors in Kate’s tribe and in Kate’s family took part in the Battle of Tippecanoe and fought with the Indians there. Some of them were killed. On their return, having seen and recognized Cicott with Harrison and his army, they decided that Kate had betrayed their confidence, and divulged the secrets of the tribe to Cicott, her lover. Soon after their re- turn from the Battle of Tippecanoe there was a council held which was attended by all of the Kickapoo tribes living near this lake. It was decided that Kate should be put to death by drowning, and in compliance with that decision, Kate was drowned in this lake by her tribe. Since that time it has been known as “Kate’s Pond” or “Kate’s Lake.”

STOP No. 4 The highway over which we are now driving should be known as the Potawatomi Trail. It leads from Independence to Pine Village, and nearly the entire way runs over high land making a water shed. Starting from Independence this high- way runs northwest to Pine Village and marks the dividing line of the hunting grounds between the Potawatomi and Kickapoo Indians. The hunting grounds of the Kickapoo were south of this trail, and the Potawatomi north. This highway has not been changed two hundred feet from the original Indian Trail. It was the first highway planked and made a toll road in Warren County. Tri-County Historical Itinerarg 43

STOP NO. 5 On the Harrison Trail We are now on the range line, range 8 west of us, range 7 east, and this point is the southwest corner of section 30, township 23 north, range 7 west, Warren County, Indiana. It is certain that Harrison’s army crossed the range line about thirty feet north of this point, and one of his soldiers, Henry Drummond by name, was buried in the clump of brush on the top of the knoll that you see about forty rods south, and the same distance west of this point. Last fall we followed the trail and marked it from the point where it entered Warren County to this point, and today we shall finish the journey that we started last fall and follow Harrison’s Trail as closely as we can from here to the Tippecanoe Battleground.

STOP No. 6 We are again on the Kickapoo Trail. The farmhouse to the right was the home of Clem J. Jones. The Harrison Army crossed the Kickapoo Trail which now makes this highway about forty rods north of here. We will turn to the east near the point where Harrison’s Army crossed this trail.

STOP NO. 7 Mound Cemetery Harrison’s Army passed near this cemetery. When we leave here, we will again cross the Harrison Trail about ten rods north. You may observe that this cemetery is perfectly round and is completely encircled by an improved highway, and it looks as though nature had formed that beautiful mound for a burial place. The names chiseled on the tombstones in this cemetery are the same family names as those on the tombstones marking the graves in the Bethel Cemetery in Fountain County, four miles east of Attica. The land around this cemetery was taken up from the government by the same families as those who took up from the government around the Bethel Cemetery, and many of the people buried in these two cemeteries are fathers, 4.6 Indiana Magazine of Histo-ry mothers, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins of the same families. The stone house a few rods southwest of here, built of native stone, was the home of Samuel Martindale. The stone in that residence is a variegated sandstone with some very delicate and beautiful shadings, and was quarried about three miles from here. When the Martindale house was built, it was considered one of the best and most beautiful farm- houses in the state. The prevailing color of the stone was red. When we turn to the right we will be very near to the Harrison Trail, which would run northeast from the point where we will turn to the right ; from that point we are going east and south to Greenhill, where we will take our dinner, after which we will come back to the Harrison Trail near the point where Harrison’s Army crossed in going out of Warren County. STOP NO. 8 Campus of the Greenhill Seminary These grounds where we have just taken our dinner and this beautiful grove were originally the campus of the Green- hill Seminary, now the public school of Greenhill. The Semin- ary was a United Brethren School, and at one time there were living in this little village of Greenhill sixteen United Breth- ren preachers, who had moved here from all parts of the Up- per Wabash Conference that their children might attend this school. We came here to take our dinner because of the invit- ing shade of these trees, and the beauty of the ground of this grove with its historic past. On the second Sunday of August each year the students who attended this school have a re- union and home-coming, and at this time old settlers, former residents, and students of the Seminary gather beneath the spreading branches of this grove, and live again the joys of by- gone days. In 1828, the first Protestant religious gathering in Warren County was held at the home of Horatio Bailey, this being the first meeting held north of the Wabash River in western Indiana. At this meeting a United Brethren Class was organized, and it was decided to establish a United Breth- ren Seminary here later. In 1869 the bricks with which to Tri-Cmmty Historical Itinerary 45 construct the building were molded and burnt near where the school building stands. In the early seventies Professor J. B. Stimpson as principal, assisted by the Reverends Joseph Coop- er, Joel Cowgill, Thomas M. Hamilton, R. F. Edmundson, and J. M. Bottenberg, and a host of other enterprising citizens, opened the Seminary for students. Among the instructors who taught in this Siminary were Professors Lamb, Cobb, Jackson, Jones, Parks, Hanson, Watson, Thompson, Wagoner, and in the Music Department Lizzie Lynn, Emma Commings, Jennie Newlin, Minnie L. Dubrow, Emma Pretyman, Abigail T. McAdams. Out of this list, Professors Stimpson, Watson, Lynn, and Pretyman are still living. In the year 1900 the trustees sold the Seminary property to Medina Township. The Seminary building burned in 1919, and this new Township School Building occupies the ground where the old Seminary stood. Students from this school went forth to all parts of the United States and located in almost every useful profession and occupation. Among these stu- dents is our Reverend 0. P. Cooper, who will assist us from here until we reach the end of our journey and show us the spots of historic interest from here to the Battleground. After graduating from this Seminary, Reverend 0. P. Cooper im- mediately began preaching for the United Brethren Church, and is one of the best known and eloquent ministers who took an active part in the old Upper Wabash Conference. He has served the United Brethren people well in some of their best appointments and was for many years a presiding elder. No one knows the historic places around Greenhill so well as he, and we are fortunate to have him with us this afternoon. Others who graduated from this Seminary were: Ed. Nye, N. W. Cowgill, Hirshey Cheadle, John R. Crask, Ira Crask, John Elwell, Homer Elwell, William Thompson, Jennie Thomp- son, Freemont Edmundson, Cyras Thompson, George Bailey, Walter Bailey, and many others. After a half century, eighty- five of the young men and women who have attended this institution of learning have passed into the mystic future and rest in the tranquil beauty of Death’s majestic and eternal sleep. 46 Indiana Magazine of History

STOP NO. 9 Armstrong Cemetery, One and One-half Miles from Greenhill We are now at the grave of General George D. Wagner who in his day and generation was perhaps the most illustri- ous man that lived in Warren County. General Wagner was born in Ohio, moved to Warren County, Indiana, and to Wag- ner’s Grove with his parents when he was four years of age. He was raised on the farm at Wagner’s Grove near here. His father engaged extensively in growing grain and raising live stock. His father was a Whig and a Methodist. General Wagner married Elizabeth Alexander. In 1856, he was elect- ed representative of Warren County in the lower house of the state legislature as a Republican, being the first Republican representative of Warren County and one of the first Repub- licans elected to office in this county. In 1858, he ws~9elected to represent the senatorial district of which this county was a part in the upper house of the state legislature. In 1860, he supported Lincoln for the nomination and election to the Presi- dency and when Lincoln made his first call for troops, General George D. Wagner was one of the first from Warren County to answer. In 1861, he was commissioned Colonel of the fifteenth Indiana Volunteers, and was soon afterwards pro- moted to Brigadier-General for bravery and distinguished service, and later was promoted to Brevet-Major-General. On April 26,1861, he had command of two thousand five hundred troops at the Battle of Shiloh. September 30, 1862, he was in command of his division at the Battle of Stone River, and was instructed to hold the ford. His orders to his men were: “Fix bayonets and hold your ground.” They held their ground, and they held the ford. Upon the ford as a center or pivot, the entire army oscillated from front to rear for hours, but Gen- eral George D. Wagner and his command held the ford. Sep- tember 10, 1863, he again distinguished himself at Chicka- mauga, and was ever afterwards known as the “Hero of Chickamauga.” October 25, 1863, he led the valiant charge up Missionary Ridge. In April, 1864, he was with his com- mand in the Atlanta campaign and again won honors and dis- tinction at Kenesaw and Lookout Mountains. In September, Tri-County Historical Itinerary 47

1864, he was ordered with his division to Chattanooga and continued in the Tennessee campaign, taking an honorable and distinguished part in the hard-fought battle of Franklin. Soon after this battle, on account of the continued illness of his wife he retired from the service to be at her bedside. His wife died in 1865. Immediately after this he located at Will- iamsport, in the practice of law, the hero of nineteen battles. He soon gained distinction in his chosen profession, and be- came one of the leading lawyers of western Indiana. He was a very prominent Free Mason. For several years after the war he was president of the State Agricultural Society. In personal appearance he was one of the finest looking men in the state of Indiana. He was six feet and four inches tall, had dark brown eyes, full high forehead, with black hair and beard. John A. Logan alone made a more pleasing appear- ance as a commander on horseback. Wagner weighed two hundred and twenty pounds and was not so active as Logan. He was appointed Minister to Berlin and was making arrange- ments to fill this appointment when he became suddenly ill and died after a few days of sickness, when not yet forty years of age. No General in the Civil War served his country with more glory and more credit to himself and more honor to the state of Indiana'than General George D. Wagner. His death had for Warren County a pathos all its own. His comrades in arms worshiped at his shrine, and hoped that his life's sun would not sink until the closing of the twilight of a long and cloudless day, that he would have meted out to him a long and successful race in life in which to enjoy the honor and the glory of his splendid, brave, and distinguished service to his country in the peril of war and with his life undimmed he could approach the House appointed for all the earth. Even yet we deplore his unfinished career, and the unperfected fame of one whose loss implants in the universal heart a feeling of disappointment and sorrow-sorrow that so early in his earth- ly life he was called upon to put on the garments of immortal- ity; disappointment that a patriot was not permitted to fulfill the duties he was called upon to perform. We are now at the grave of the Reverend James Killin who 48 I.n&iana Magazine of History

was born June 3, 1814, and died February 29, 1880. He first settled in Logan Township about three miles northeast of Attica, and was a local preacher of the Methodist faith, one of forty preachers licensed to preach at Bethel. While in Fountain County he operated a stone quarry in which all the old sandstone monuments now marking the graves of the pio- neers over a very large portion of the state of Indiana were made. While in the Bethel neighborhood, he was one of the charter members of a Temperance Society, which was the first secret society founded in Fountain County. We are now at the grave of John N. Holloway who was at one time a very prominent lawyer in Danville, Illinois. He married a daughter of the Reverend Calbrath Hall, a noted Methodist preacher of West Lebanon. Holloway was shot, on April 16, 1887, by a neighbor by the name of Downs, about a mile north of Greenhill, over a dispute of the title of thirty acres of land. He lived three days after three bullets entered his heart. At the time of his death he was forty-eight years of age. Henrietta, his wife, lived until April 13, 1913, when she died at the age of seventy-six years.

STOP NO. 10 Pond Grove Cemetery This ground was originally an island. The marsh land completely encircling this cemetery on the east and the south was originally a very large marsh covering about one thousand acres of land, where wild cranberries grew and ripened, and on this account it was known as the Cranberry Marsh. The island on which we are now standing was covered with tim- ber, and was known as Pond Grove, being a grove in the marsh or pond. In this county just north of Independence was an- other marsh very much like this one and about the same size, in which cranberries grew, and also known as the Cranberry Marsh. They were two separate marshes with their drain- age in different outlets. This marsh where we now are was called the Pond Grove Cranberry Marsh, and in the early thirties the United Brethren denomination built a church and a parsonage here in the Pond Grove, and laid out this cemetery Tri-County Historical Itinerary 49

on the ground they owned. Many of the people buried here were active in the establishment of the United Brethren Church in Warren, Benton, and Tippecanoe counties. We are now standing at the grave of William Brown. He was of German descent, born in 1796, and died in 1868. He was one of the early bishops in the United Brethren Church. In the pioneer days he was a very prominent and capable preacher who took an active part in establishing the United Brethren Church in the state of Indiana. Here is the grave of Levi D. Brown also a minister in the United Brethren Church and a grandson of Bishop William Brown. He was one of the first men to enlist in the Civil War in Warren County. He was shot in the mouth, the ball passing downward and coming out at the back of his neck. He was brought home to die, and hovered for eight months between life and death, but finally recovered. This is the grave of David Brown. He, too, was a minister in the United Brethren Church and a son of Bishop William Brown, and the father of Levi D. Brown. Here is the grave of the Reverend Oliver Hadley. His wife was the daughter of David Brown, sister of Levi D. Brown, and granddaughter of Bishop William Brown, all ministers of the United Brethren Church. This Reverend Oliver D. Hadley was the first missionary of the United Brethren De- nomination gent to Africa, where he contracted a lingering fever and came back to America, hoping to recover, but died three days after he arrived in the United States. Bishop William Brown, who is buried here, was an uncle of Simon Brown, a United Brethren preacher who estab- lished Brown’s Chapel near Portland Arch in Fountain County. The class is still in existence. The old church burned a few years ago, and a new church was erected in a new location and is now known as Newcastle. The Reverend Simon Brown afterwards became a lecturer for the Spiritualists, and was one of the founders of the Progressive Friends Church, locat- ed in Township, Fountain County, erected in 1864, which was the first Spiritualist church built in Indiana. This is the grave of Otterbein Brown, a son of the Reverend William Brown. His father named him for Philip W. Otter- 50 Indiana Magazine of History bein, the founder of the United Brethren Church. The town of Otterbein, a mile and a one-half north of here, was named in honor of Mr. Brown. Otterbein Brown, like his cousin, Simon Brown, became a Spiritualist, and he was active in preaching the doctrine of Spiritualism in this locality as his father had been in establishing the United Brethren Church here. This is the grave of the Reverend Joseph S. Cooper, born May 28, 1825, died November 7, 1908, and his wife, Ellen Mikles Cooper, who died May 22, 1920. He began preaching for the United Brethren Church in Montgomery County, In- diana, in 1862, and continued in active service until he died in 1908. He was an eloquent preacher, a well-read and scholarly man, and one of the most popular preachers in the Upper Wabash Conference. He did more perhaps than any other one man to establish the United Brethren faith in North- western Indiana, and when living was perhaps acquainted over a larger territory and with more people in Indiana and Illinois than any preacher in the Upper Wabash Conference. From what we have learned from these graves, we can read- ily see that this is a United Brethren Cemetery. This is the grave of Dr. Hemrighouse who was a gradu- ate of two of the best medical colleges in Germany, and after coming to the United States was graduated from two medical colleges here. His home was just across the road north of this graveyard, and while living here and practicing as a country doctor, he was perhaps called in consultation more than any physician in northwestern Indiana. He was con- sidered one of the best surgeons in the state of Indiana and enjoyed a very splendid local practice.

STOP NO. 11 Near Otterbein (1) We are about thirty rods south of the southeast corner of Benton County and this highway is the dividing line between Warren and Tippecanoe counties. We are very near where the Harrison Army left Warren County and entered Tippe- TrdCounty Historid Itinerarg 51 canoe County. On the return trip one of Harrison’s soldiers was buried in Warren County just after they crossed from Tippecanoe within forty rods of where we are now standing. (2) We are now about a mile and one-half east of the Warren County line in Tippecanoe County and nearly east of the south line of Benton County. We have come here because of the marker that you see on the east side of this highway, direct- ing us to the position of Harrison’s Camp. This marker was erected by a Mr. Wilson of Lafayette, and Ben Magee who lived near here. In going to the Battle of Tippecanoe this was the camp where Harrison’s Army took their dinner, and on re- turning this was the first stop where again they ate dinner. From here we will go to Montmorenci and from there straight east, passing the Soldiers’ Home to the left, where to the right you may see the grounds and the graveyard of the Indiana Soldiers’ Home, and we will come on to the Tecumseh Trail at the bottom of the hill about two miles north of the Soldiers’ Home. STOP NO. 12 The Prophet’s Rock The broken piece of cemented gravel lying north of the highway is what was called “The Prophet’s Rock.” It was a part of a cemented ledge of gravel, and upon it the Prophet stood and directed the battle. To our right along the edge of the timber is Burnett’s Creek. Between the place where “Prophet’s Rock” then stood and the creek was a large marsh, through which the Indians crawled to the battleground. From here you can see the monument that marks the battleground beyond the trees lining the far bank of Burnett’s Creek. Har- rison’s Army marched about a half mile west of where we are now standing and around this marsh, coming into the battle- ground from the north. The Prophet stood on this rock and gave his commands to the Indians. His voice could be plainly heard above the roar of the guns and cannons, and it is said that on a clear evening his voice would carry for two miles so plainly that one could understand what he was saying that distance away. When the Battle of Tippecanoe was fought, 52 Indiana Magazine of History

Tecumseh was in the state of Alabama, and a chief called the White Loon was in command of the Indians. The Battleground The Tippecanoe Battleground is so well known in the his- tory of Indiana and so many able historians have written up the incidents that took place here that it would be useless for us to attempt at this time to relate anything of this battle. But I shall tell you something of Tecumseh. Tecumseh’s father was a Shawnee Indian. The Shawnee were one of the tribes of the great Algonquin family. Te- cumseh’s mother was one of the Creek Indians who were one of the tribes in the great southern family of Indians called the Muskogens. The account related by Simon Kenton and vouched for by John Johnston and Anthony Shane is that Tecumseh, Laulewasikaw, the Prophet, and a third brother, Kunshaukau, were triplets, that Tecumseh was the youngest or last born of the three; that this event so extraordinary among the Indian tribes with whom a double birth or twins is quite uncommon, struck the minds of the Indians as super- natural and marked the triplets with the prestige of future greatness. In the fall of 1807, all the Indians in the northwestern territory including the Miami, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Dela- wares, Winnebago, Fox, Sac, in fact all the tribes of the northwestern territory, held a conference beneath the spread- ing branches of a magnificent oak tree that stood within the corporation limits of the city of Attica. This conference was held with the Shawnee. Prior to this time the Shawnee had been a tribe of nomads, a wandering tribe of Indians. The white men first found them along the eastern shores of Lake Huron. Next they found them at Shawnee Town, on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Illinois. Then they were in Tennessee and next they were along the Suwanee River in Florida and Georgia. Soon afterwards they were in Ohio and when they came to this conference, they were living near Greenville, Ohio. The object of this conference was to have the tribe of Indians then possessing the northwestern territory allot to the Shawnee a territory for a hunting ground some- Tri-Countg Historical Itinerary 53 where near the central part of the . The territory drained by the Shawnee Creek south and east of the Wabash River and a territory twenty miles up the Tippecanoe River adjoining the territory across the river from the mouth of the Tippecanoe and twenty miles on either side of the Tip- pecanoe River was allotted to the Shawnee at this conference for their hunting grounds. This location was suited exactly to Tecumseh’s idea of forming a confederation of all the In- dian tribes, as this territory was adjacent to the hunting grounds of all the various Indian tribes in the northwestern territory. Zachariah Cicott and a small number of Indians in every tribe opposed the granting of this hunting ground to the Shawnee. Tecumseh and the Prophet and about forty Shawnee Indians came to the hunting ground allotted them in the spring of 1808, and located at the Prophet’s Town, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe River and only a short distance east of this battleground. Zachariah Cicott viewed the corn- ing of the Shawnee as a bad omen. He had become acquaint- ed with the Southern Indians and he knew that Tecumseh’s hope of a confederation of all the Indians both north and south was inspired by British gold. In the spring of 1808, Zachariah Cicott, then a young man twenty-six years of age, being acquainted with the Chickasaw, and Chocktaw, Semi- nole, and other tribes of Muskogen families immediately went south, and spent a year or more among the Muskogens, warn- ing them against an alliance with Tecumseh and the Shawnee, and pointing out to them the danger of their accepting Tecum- seh’s plan of the confederacy. He succeeded in winning the principal chief of the Muskogen tribes, Pushmataha, and pre- pared him to meet the arguments of Tecumseh. When Te- cumseh came south on his mission of confederacy in 1811, and 1812, there was only one of the Muskogen tribes who joined Tecumseh’s confederacy and took part with the British in the War of 1812; this was his mother’s tribe, the Creek. Tecumseh made two trips south in his efforts to make a confederation of all the Indian tribes, the first, in the fall of 1811. He was in Alabama when the Battle of Tippecanoe was fought, and did not learn of the battle and its results until he reached the Miami Camp near Shawnee Mound on his way 54 Indiana Magazine of History

to the Prophet’s Town at the mouth of the Tippecanoe River. When he reached Prophet’s Town, there was but one Indian squaw left in the town, who was taking care of her son who had been seriously wounded in the Battle of Tippecanoe. The son lived to tell the story of Tecumseh’s return to Solon Robin- son, one of the first settlers in Lake County, Indiana. From the Prophet’s Town, Tecumseh went immediately to Detroit where he joined the British Army. In 1812, at the request of the British, Tecumseh made a second trip to try to secure the assistance of the Muskogens, and persuade them to join him and the British Army, but Zachariah Cicott’s argument and representation to the Mus- kogens in 1808 had prepared them for Tecumseh’s visits in 1811 and 1812. On his return south in 1812, he had been pro- moted by the British and was a Major-General in the British Army, which position he held until he was killed in the Battle of the Thames on the fifth day of October, 1813. Immediately after his death, the Indians no longer hearing the voice of their faithful commander, laid down their arms and deserted the British Army. His body was easily dis- tinguished on account of his perfect physique. He was buried on the battlefield by the American soldiers. Perhaps Zachariah Cicott knew Tecumseh and the Prophet and their aims and purposes better than any one then living. He considered Tecumseh a tool of the British, possessed of but little originality; expressing in his speeches the objects and sentiments only as they had been previously placed in his mouth by the British officials, and he viewed the Prophet as having more natural ability than Tecumseh, but as a demented man and a religious fanatic. Perhaps the visit of Zachariah Cicott to the Muskogen tribes of Indians in the southern states in 1808 had much to do in determining Pushmataha, the Chocktaw chief, in decid- ing to cast his lot with the Americans in the War of 1812. In this war Pushmataha took an active part and he did valiant service, and for his service rendered to the United States of America in this war, he was elevated to the position of a Major-General in the . He served during Tri-County Historical Itinerary 55

the War of 1812 with his Indian warriors of the Muskogen tribes under General Andrew Jackson, and he and Jackson became fast friends. Pushmataha often visited the city of Washington after the war, and he became personally ac- quainted with a great many of the leading statesmen and national characters at that time. He was deeply interested in the education of his people, and of the annuity allowed him for his service in the War of 1812 by the United States Gov- ernment he devoted two thousand dollars each year for fifteen years toward the support of the Chocktaw School System. In the late fall of 1824, he visited the city of Washington in the interest of the Indian tribes in the southern states, and on the evening of December 23 of that year, he was a guest of General Marquis de Lafayette at the hotel where Lafayette was stopping in Washington. After a delightful evening with the Marquis and his friends, Pushmataha on his way home became sick with the croup and died on December 24, 1824, in the sixtieth year of his age. He was buried in the National Cemetery at Arlington. A procession three miles in length followed his remains to the grave, and thousands of people stood along the road of the funeral march to show their respect to him. He was buried with military honors, and General Marquis de Lafayette, President James Monroe and his cabinet, and members of the United States Congress stood about his grave with uncovored heads when his body was lowered into the ground. It is a strange coincidence that Tecumseh was the only Indian ever elevated to the position of a Major-General in the British Army, and Pushmataha was the only Indian ever elevated to the position of Major-General in the Army of the United States of America. The United States of America is in no way indebted to Tecumseh, but we do owe Pushmataha a debt Of gratitude that we can never repay. “Honor should be giv- en to whom honor is due.” The difference in the life, char- acter, and the last end of these two Indian chiefs should lead US Americans to hold before our children in our public schools the great Chocktaw chief, Pushmataha, who towers above all others in his prowess as a soldier, in his eloquence and his 56 Indiana Magazine of History

loyalty to his tribe, his people, and his country, love for his nation and his race, and his willingness to sacrifice all for his government and his tribe. As we finished our journey and our visit to the Tippecanoe battleground and were ready to start home, the Historical Society of Miami County came on the grounds, and with them was the remnant of the Miami tribe of Indians who yet linger in Miami County, the descendants of Francis Slocum and Meshinglamasey and the Godfroy chiefs. They had with them two medals both cast from pure silver, one a little larger than the other, the larger one to a chief and the smaller one to a warrior, presented to two members of the tribe by the United States Government for service and merit. On one side of the medals was a picture of Andrew Jackson, and on the other side clasped hands. The designs on both medals were the same. They had with them bows and arrows with which they engaged in a shooting match. They first shot the arrows over the monument, and then a Mr. Jackson, of Lafayette, and a young Miami chief by the name of Godfroy made a long- distance shot to see which could shoot farthest with his bow and arrows. Mr. Jackson won over Chief Godfroy by a dis- tance of nine feet. This ended the marking of the Harrison Trail by the Benton, Warren, and Fountain Historical Society, June 7, 1925.